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REPORT

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Living well in the ACT region

 

The University of Canberra is the university of, in and for Canberra. Our Living well in the ACT region survey collects the data needed by people in the ACT region to help maintain the high quality of life and liveability the ACT is known for.

The Living Well in the ACT Region survey (Living well survey) asks adults living in the ACT region about their wellbeing, resilience, and the liveability of their community. The survey began in 2019, and has collected data once every year – and twice in key years where specific challenges (the Black Summer bushfires and COVID-19) occurred that impacted the wellbeing of Canberrans.

The latest findings were released on 6 October 2025. You can access the report here:

  • Living well in the ACT region: Understanding the changing wellbeing of Canberrans, 2019-2024 (report available here)

Earlier reports from the survey, and the related ‘Living well in the ACT with a changing climate’ survey are also available:

  • Living well with a changing climate: Findings of the 2023 ACT longitudinal survey on climate change (available here)
  • Living well in the ACT region: The changing wellbeing of Canberrans during 2020 and 2021 (available here).

For more information about the survey methods, refer to the survey user guide, available here.

Living well in the ACT region survey – our story

2019 – our first survey (Wave 1)

In 2019, the Medical Research Future Fund funded the ‘Environmental and social determinants of health in the Australian Capital Territory’ project, led by Professor Rachel Davey at the University of Canberra. Part of this project involves conducting a survey examining the determinants of health and wellbeing in the ACT region. This funding enabled us to develop and launch the Living well in the ACT region survey in 2019. The Living well survey aims to track how wellbeing, and the key environmental and social factors that influence wellbeing, change over time in the ACT region. It includes a range of measures, including many that were first measured in our Regional Wellbeing Survey, and others that have been designed more specifically for their relevance to the unique ACT region.

The Living well survey was in early stages of development as the ACT Government began development of its ACT Wellbeing Framework. This provided a useful opportunity to ensure that the Living well survey could measure different aspects of wellbeing that were emerging as being important to Canberrans in the consultation processes being undertaken as part of developing the Framework. We worked with a range of groups across the ACT to identify what the survey should measure, with a goal of ensuring the data collected could inform development and, subsequently, reporting on wellbeing of people living in the ACT. Data were first collected in November 2019, and initially it was intended that a second survey only occur in late 2021 or early 2022.

2019 onwards: Our links to the ACT Wellbeing Framework

In 2019, the ACT Government announced that it would develop a Wellbeing Framework for the Australian Capital Territory. During 2019 and 2020, the ACT Government conducted a range of consultation processes discussing key learnings from the development of wellbeing frameworks around the world as part of developing a proposed set of indicators to be used to measure wellbeing in the ACT. In doing so, this jurisdiction joined the growing number of countries and regions internationally who are seeking to measure progress by examining whether their citizens have a good quality of life, as well as measuring economic growth.

University of Canberra researchers Jacki Schirmer and Rob Tanton supported the consultation process, discussing as part of multi-stakeholder workshops. They also participated in a range of discussions and providing expert advice on the development and design of indicators. In March 2020, the ACT Government released the ACT Wellbeing Framework, and we are proud that University of Canberra researchers were able to contribute to its development.

The ACT Wellbeing Framework draws on data from the Living well survey to report a number of indicators. To access the data, go to the ACT Wellbeing data dashboard.

2020 — our second and third surveys (Waves 2 and 3), focusing on the effects of COVID-19, bushfires and smoke and hailstorm impacts

The first Living well in the ACT region survey finished collecting data on the first days in which the ACT region was blanketed in bushfire smoke in late 2020. This meant we had (without realising it) collected data that provided a picture of quality of life just before the ACT was impacted by bushfires over the summer of 2019-20, a major hailstorm causing widespread damage in January 2020, followed by COVID-19.

As the early months of 2020 passed, it became apparent that these events were likely to be impacting the wellbeing of ACT residents – and that we could play a role by finding out who was experiencing more and fewer impacts. We conducted a second survey in April-May 2020, a time when ACT residents were homeschooling children and encouraged to only leave their homes for essential purposes. A follow up survey was then conducted in November 2020.

Three reports on “Living well in the ACT region: exploring the wellbeing of ACT residents in 2019-20” were produced:

2021 (Wave 4) — wellbeing during lockdown

During the second half of 2021, ACT residents experienced the longest lockdown of the COVID-19 pandemic.  Our 2021 survey, conducted during September and October 2021, focused on how wellbeing was going during  lockdown, and quality of life in the ACT region more generally. The report can be found here.

2022 (Wave 5) — Checking in

A short ‘Living well in the ACT’ check-in survey was conducted in 2022 to track wellbeing and liveability in the ACT region.

2023 (Wave 6) — The rising cost of living

Conducted in early 2023, Wave 6 focused on the rising cost of living, this survey is tracking how wellbeing and liveability are changing as the ACT region changes.

2023 (Wave 7) — Living well with a changing climate

In late 2023, the Living well in the ACT with a changing climate survey was undertaken. This special edition of the Living well survey series was conducted to track change in the resilience of Canberrans to the expected effects of climate change. The ACT region (including Canberra, Queanbeyan, Yass, Murrumbateman and surrounding areas) experiences many weather extremes, with some of the coldest winters in the country, and heatwaves in summer. Climate projections predict that in the future the region will become warmer and drier, and events such as drought, bushfire, storms, floods and heatwaves will happen more often. This survey aimed to better understand who is most vulnerable to extreme weather events, and how we can support different people to cope with these events.

This survey included measures used in the first Living well with a changing climate survey, conducted five years earlier, as well as key measures used in the Living well survey.  The 2023 report is available here, and the earlier report is available here.

2024 (Wave 8) – Tracking the effects of rising costs of living and other challenges

In late 2024, the eighth Living well survey examined how Canberrans were coping as rising cost of living continued to affect many households. The findings were released on 6 October 2025. You can access the report here:

  • Living well in the ACT region: Understanding the changing wellbeing of Canberrans, 2019-2024 (report available here)